12
1 Year three is quickly coming to an end and the project keeps gaining momentum thanks to the energy and enthusiasm of our team members, students, partners and stakeholders! We continue to develop collaborative relationships with other major research projects, fill lecture halls with presentations from our invited speakers, and gather for workshops and conferences to integrate new theoretical and methodological researchers in our research dialogues. This fall saw 29 team members, students and postdoctoral fellows meeting with the Religion and Society Programme at St. John’s College, Cambridge as part of the New Forms of Public Religion conference. From individual presentations to keynote lectures, and of course gathering on the College Backs to socialize, it proved a great opportunity to showcase the work of the Religion and Diversity Project to an international audience. Formal research partnerships see further development through an international research acceleration grant awarded to Lori Beaman and Marie- Claire Foblets (RELIGARE) as well as an ESRC funded project entitled “Religion, discourse, diversity” held by Kim Knott (Lancaster) and Lori Beaman. Pamela Klassen hosted the “Care of Souls and the Soul of Care: Religious Diversity and Publicly Funded Health Care” workshop and forum on September 25-27, 2012 at the University of Toronto. Lori Beaman and Steven Tomlins hosted an international workshop on “Atheist Identities: Spaces and Social Contexts” November 22-24, 2012 at the University of Ottawa. Workshop reports and summaries can be found in this newsletter and on our website. 2013 will see Grace Davie (Exeter) located as a visiting scholar at the University of Ottawa in March; Sarah-Jane Page (Nottingham) will also be hosted in Ottawa in September 2013. Solange Lefebvre will be hosting an internode research meeting at the Université de Montréal in March 2013. Stay tuned for more details. La troisième année du projet touche rapidement à sa fin et celui-ci poursuit sa lancée grâce à l’énergie et à l’enthousiasme de ses membres, de ses étudiants et de ses partenaires. Nous continuons à établir des relations de collaboration avec d’autres projets majeurs, à remplir des amphithéâtres avec des présentations de conférenciers invités et à nous rassembler afin d’intégrer des chercheurs aux perspectives théoriques et méthodologiques à nos dialogues scientifiques. Cet automne, 29 membres, étudiants et stagiaires postdoctoraux se sont joint au Religion and Society Programme du St. John’s College à Cambridge dans le cadre de la conférence New Forms of Public Religion. Tant les présentations individuelles, que les conférences plénières et les rassemblements dans les « College Backs » se sont avérés de merveilleuses occasions de mettre en valeur le travail du Projet Religion et Diversité auprès d’une audience internationale. Les partenariats formels de recherche progressent grâce à une subvention d’accélération de la recherche internationale qui a été accordée à Lori Beaman et à Marie-Claire Foblets (RELIGARE) ainsi qu’à un projet financé par le ESRC qui est intitulé « Religion, discourse, diversity » et qui est mené par by Kim Knott (Lancaster) et Lori Beaman. Pamela Klassen a animé l’atelier et forum intitulé « Care of Souls and the Soul of Care: Religious Diversity and Publicly Funded Health Care » du 25 au 27 septembre à l’Université de Toronto. Lori Beaman et Steven Tomlins ont animé l’atelier international « Atheist Identities: Spaces and Social Contexts » du 22 au 24 novembre 2012 à l’Université d’Ottawa. Les rapports et les résumés des ateliers sont disponibles dans ce bulletin ainsi que dans notre site web. En 2013, l’Université d’Ottawa recevra Grace Davie (Exeter) comme chercheuse invitée au mois de mars et Sarah-Jane Page (Nottingham) au mois de septembre 2013. Solange Lefebvre animera une réunion sur la recherche internodale à l’Université de Montréal en mars 2013. Restez à l'écoute pour plus de détails. Lori G. Beaman Project Director Letter from Director

Letter from Director - religionanddiversity.careligionanddiversity.ca/media/uploads/newsletter_-_january_2013... · Year three is quickly coming to an end and the project ... Religare

  • Upload
    buingoc

  • View
    214

  • Download
    0

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

1

Year three is quickly coming to an end and the project

keeps gaining momentum thanks to the energy and

enthusiasm of our team members, students, partners and

stakeholders! We continue to develop collaborative

relationships with other major research projects, fill

lecture halls with presentations from our invited speakers,

and gather for workshops and conferences to integrate

new theoretical and methodological researchers in our

research dialogues.

This fall saw 29 team members, students and

postdoctoral fellows meeting with the Religion and Society

Programme at St. John’s College, Cambridge as part of the

New Forms of Public Religion conference. From individual

presentations to keynote lectures, and of course gathering

on the College Backs to socialize, it proved a great

opportunity to showcase the work of the Religion and

Diversity Project to an international audience.

Formal research partnerships see further

development through an international research

acceleration grant awarded to Lori Beaman and Marie-

Claire Foblets (RELIGARE) as well as an ESRC funded

project entitled “Religion, discourse, diversity” held by

Kim Knott (Lancaster) and Lori Beaman.

Pamela Klassen hosted the “Care of Souls and the

Soul of Care: Religious Diversity and Publicly Funded

Health Care” workshop and forum on September 25-27,

2012 at the University of Toronto. Lori Beaman and

Steven Tomlins hosted an international workshop on

“Atheist Identities: Spaces and Social Contexts” November

22-24, 2012 at the University of Ottawa. Workshop

reports and summaries can be found in this newsletter and

on our website.

2013 will see Grace Davie (Exeter) located as a

visiting scholar at the University of Ottawa in March;

Sarah-Jane Page (Nottingham) will also be hosted in

Ottawa in September 2013. Solange Lefebvre will be

hosting an internode research meeting at the Université de

Montréal in March 2013. Stay tuned for more details.

La troisième année du projet touche rapidement à sa fin et

celui-ci poursuit sa lancée grâce à l’énergie et à

l’enthousiasme de ses membres, de ses étudiants et de ses

partenaires. Nous continuons à établir des relations de

collaboration avec d’autres projets majeurs, à remplir des

amphithéâtres avec des présentations de conférenciers

invités et à nous rassembler afin d’intégrer des chercheurs

aux perspectives théoriques et méthodologiques à nos

dialogues scientifiques.

Cet automne, 29 membres, étudiants et stagiaires

postdoctoraux se sont joint au Religion and Society

Programme du St. John’s College à Cambridge dans le

cadre de la conférence New Forms of Public Religion.

Tant les présentations individuelles, que les conférences

plénières et les rassemblements dans les « College

Backs » se sont avérés de merveilleuses occasions de

mettre en valeur le travail du Projet Religion et Diversité

auprès d’une audience internationale.

Les partenariats formels de recherche progressent

grâce à une subvention d’accélération de la recherche

internationale qui a été accordée à Lori Beaman et à

Marie-Claire Foblets (RELIGARE) ainsi qu’à un projet

financé par le ESRC qui est intitulé « Religion, discourse,

diversity » et qui est mené par by Kim Knott (Lancaster)

et Lori Beaman.

Pamela Klassen a animé l’atelier et forum intitulé

« Care of Souls and the Soul of Care: Religious Diversity

and Publicly Funded Health Care » du 25 au 27 septembre

à l’Université de Toronto. Lori Beaman et Steven Tomlins

ont animé l’atelier international « Atheist Identities: Spaces

and Social Contexts » du 22 au 24 novembre 2012 à

l’Université d’Ottawa. Les rapports et les résumés des

ateliers sont disponibles dans ce bulletin ainsi que dans

notre site web.

En 2013, l’Université d’Ottawa recevra Grace

Davie (Exeter) comme chercheuse invitée au mois de mars

et Sarah-Jane Page (Nottingham) au mois de septembre

2013. Solange Lefebvre animera une réunion sur la

recherche internodale à l’Université de Montréal en mars

2013. Restez à l'écoute pour plus de détails.

Lori G. Beaman

Project Director

Letter from Director

2

Religion and Diversity Project Newsletter January 2013, Volume 3, Issue 1

(University of Nevada, Reno)

James T. Richardson’s Shari’a Project

The main research goal held by James

Richardson and team is to examine changes in

Muslim identities across various demographic

and gender subgroups, post 9/11. As they await

word on the disposition of a large grant

submitted to the National Science Foundation,

James and team are proceeding with some key

aspects of the research work and in doing so

are incorporating new methodologies. Whether

NSF funding is received or not, the team will

continue their research, though in a more

limited fashion, through the use of online

methodologies. Optimism of gaining funding

remains in order to launch large on-site

surveying that the team hopes to accomplish in

Canada, the U.S., and Australia. Currently,

James and team are experimenting with the use

of MTurk as a method of gathering data, along

with use of Facebook and other internet based

methodologies. Other researchers on Muslim

identity and Muslim issues have successfully

used such approaches as many Muslims are

quite internet savvy and make use of these

technologies regularly.

Best of luck moving your project forward!

(University of New Brunswick)

Linking Classrooms Initiative

In this innovative project, Nancy Nason-Clark

and Cathy Holtmann introduced resources they

have used in teaching and learning about religious

diversity into the university classroom. The goal

of using these resources is to present another

dimension alongside teaching material that

integrates the use of online resources in

education about religious diversity. Incorporating videos as part of a class lecture to introduce a

new theme, provide an example, or start a

discussion are just some of the ways that the

Linking Classrooms Initiative can be used. To

view a selection of video links, visit the Religion

and Diversity Project’s website and visit the

Sociology & Religious Diversity YouTube

Channel. The LCI project encourages professors

to include assignments that require students to

access and evaluate online resources that deal

with religion. Along with creating class-member

blogs where students can open discussions, LCI

has been used to link classes across the country

by using webinar software. Nancy and Cathy

were able to link graduate students at the

University of New Brunswick with graduate

students at the Université de Montréal. This

took planning but provided rich results and gave

students a direct experience in dealing with

diversity on a variety of levels.

We encourage team members to utilize this

fantastic resource in their own classrooms!

Team Member Research Updates The Religion and Diversity Project team is hard at work on numerous research fronts.

3

Religion and Diversity Project Newsletter January 2013, Volume 3, Issue 1

In collaboration with the Religion and Society Programme, the Religion and Diversity Project brought forth

New Forms of Public Religion, a conference that was held at St. John’s College in Cambridge. The aim

of this conference was to explore the forms which public religion is taking today, not only in the West

but elsewhere in an increasingly connected world. It showcased projects funded by the Religion and

Society Programme and the Religion and Diversity Project alongside other new research in this area. In total

21 team members, 3 post-doctoral fellows, and 5 student team members attended the conference.

Team members presented their research in thematic

sessions on Religion and Education, Religion and Law,

Religion, Health and Welfare, Religion and Politics,

Market and Globalisation, Religion, Media and Civil

Society, Religion in Public Space and Religion and

Violence. Presentations covered textual analysis, data

reporting, and methodology innovations when studying

religion and diversity and its many forms.

In the closing plenary session, “Agendas and Methods for

Studying New Forms of Public Religion,” chaired by

Rebecca Catto and Linda Woodhead, Lori Beaman,

Grace Davie, and Jim Spickard

discussed the multiple avenues

and possibilities in the study of religion and diversity,

assessing results of research initiatives and ongoing projects.

The team meeting, held after the conference’s completion, allowed team

members to present findings from research conducted under the Religion and

Diversity Project umbrella. This included Paul Bowlby’s “Religion in Public Places

and Spaces” and Rukhsana Ahmed’s “This is your body and you have to be

careful to ask for your rights.” Postdoctoral fellow William Hoverd presented

results from “The Public Management of Religion in Québec and Ontario”

initiative headed by Solange Lefebvre. Louis-Charles Gagnon-Tessier’s PhD

research was the subject of “Archives and Specters in the Briefs of the

Commission on Religion in School (1999) and the Bouchard-Taylor

Commission (2008)” and Arlene Macdonald presented data from her MITACS

postdoctoral research “In the name of the guru: the Guru Nanak Emergency

Centre and the Sikh imagination.” We look forward to seeing you all and hearing more about how your

research has been developing at our next team meeting in Ottawa fall 2013!

2012 Annual Team Meeting in Cambridge

The Religion and Diversity Project held its second annual team meeting at St. John’s College in Cambridge,

U.K. September 2012. Here’s a glimpse of what took place.

4

Religion and Diversity Project Newsletter January 2013, Volume 3, Issue 1

Religion, Gender and Sexuality Among Youth in Canada in Nottingham, UK

Pamela Dickey Young and Heather Shipley were invited to talk about the Religion, Gender and Sexuality

among Youth in Canada (RGSY) project at the University of Nottingham on September 3, 2012. The presentation, entitled “Religion, Gender and Sexuality among Youth in Canada,” was a report on the

current state of the RGSY project. This talk was given as part of a larger event entitled “Religion, Youth

and Sexuality: Stories from the United Kingdom and Canada” hosted by Andrew Yip and Sarah Jane Page

who presented final results from their Religion, Youth and Sexuality project in the UK. The enthusiastic

audience was composed of academics and those who work with youth in religious organizations and in

community projects.

Pam and Heather have been invited to present RGSY data at the Gender and Education Association

Biennial Conference “Compelling Diversities, Educational Intersections: Policy, Practice, Parity” at the

Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research in London South Bank University this April 2013. More

details to come!

Sarah-Jane Page, Pamela

Dickey Young, Heather

Shipley and Andrew Kam-

Tuck Yip in the Millennium

Garden at the University of

Nottingham.

Linda Woodhead and Rebecca

Catto enjoy a break on the river.

Gary Bouma and Arlene

Macdonald arrive at St. John’s.

5

Religion and Diversity Project Newsletter January 2013, Volume 3, Issue 1

Association for the Sociology of Religion (ASR)

Conference

The annual conference entitled “Religion and Social Change” was

held in Denver Colorado from August 17 - 18, 2012. Four team

members attended: Peter Beyer (Convener and Respondent),

Prema Kurien (“Migration, Transnationalism and Religious

Transformation: The Syrian Christian Church in India”), James T.

Richardson (“Utopia Abandoned? A Sociological Analysis of Major

Court Decisions Concerning Minority Religions in Europe”), and

Michael Wilkinson (“Globalization and Pentecostalism in North

America”).

Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR)

Conference

Held November 9 - 11, 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona. The ten team

member speakers included: James A. Beckford, Peter Beyer, Gary

Bouma, Cathy Holtmann (student team member), Nancy Nason-

Clark, Susan Palmer, Samuel Reimer, James T. Richardson, Michael

Wilkinson.

American Academy of Religion (AAR) Conference

Pamela Klassen presided over two sessions with the theme of

Prayer and Imaginations of National Identity and Exceeding Boundaries:

Approaches to Transnationalism in North American Religions at the

AAR’s annual conference held November 17 - 20, 2012 in Chicago,

Illinois.

Religare Conference

Team members Lori Beaman,

Solange Lefebvre, Kim Knott, Jean-

François Gaudreault-DesBiens, and

Linda Woodhead went to Belgium to

discuss religious diversity in Canada

and the UK at the 2012 Religare

Conference, Secularism and Religious

Diversity in Europe: Opportunities and

Perspectives.

Learning and Networking Find out about conferences, workshops and lectures that took

place over the past few months.

Mark your Calendars Upcoming events to take note

of:

February 18-19, 2013,

Living with Religious

Diversity – International

Seminar.

Delhi, India.

May 20-22, 2013, Impact

of Religion – Conference.

Uppsala, Sweden.

May 30-June 2, 2013,

Law and Society Association

(LSA). Boston, Massachusetts.

June 1-8, 2013, Canadian

Federation for the

Humanities and Social

Sciences (CFHSS). University of Victoria, British

Columbia. June 27-30, 2013,

International Society for

the Sociology of Religion

(ISSR).

Turku, Finland.

August 10-12, 2013, Association for the

Sociology of Religion (ASR).

New York City, New York. November 8-10, 2013,

Society for the Scientific

Study of Religion (SSSR).

Boston, Massachusetts. November 23-26, 2013,

American Academy of

Religion (AAR). Baltimore, Maryland.

6

Religion and Diversity Project Newsletter January 2013, Volume 3, Issue 1

Workshop Reports

The Study of Religion in Atlantic Canada: Diverse Disciplines,

Theories, Methods, and Contexts

Nancy Nason-Clark, Cathy Holtmann, Paul Bowlby, Rubina Ramji, and

Sam Reimer held a workshop in May 2012 with the intention of

providing an opportunity for students who conduct research related to

religion to present and discuss their work and to begin the formation

of a network of scholars of religion in the region. The workshop

succeeded in providing the committee members an overview of the

research that was being conducted on religious diversity in Atlantic

Canada. Topics included religious issues in contemporary media,

women in Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, as well as historical studies

of religion in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and among Acadians

in the Maritimes. There was tremendous enthusiasm for making the

workshop an annual event and four graduate students from three

universities volunteered to be part of the organizing committee for

2013. A suggested focus for future workshops was religious identities,

spaces and places. With the experience of planning the inaugural

workshop behind them, the committee has already sought and received

funding for their next workshop. Looking forward to hearing about

your next event!

Care of Souls and

the Soul of Care:

Religious Diversity

and Healthcare

A day-long community workshop and forum took place in

late September at the University of Toronto, organized by

the Religion in the Public Sphere initiative and supported by

the Religion and Diversity Project. Team member Pamela

Klassen presented an introduction to the topic, observing

that small scale interactions can reveal a great deal about

healthcare as a system and its capacity to respond to the

rituals, practices and beliefs of its clients. Questions that

speakers considered included: Has religion made a difference

in the success or failure of publicly-funded healthcare systems? And do such systems respond effectively to

the challenges that religious diversity poses for biomedical healthcare? The workshop was successful in

giving scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners the opportunity to examine the legacies and significance of

religion for the ways healthcare is both imagined and practised today. There was a focus on the influence

that religious diversity has on healthcare in urban centres, as well as considering whether religion, and most

specifically Christianity, retains any influence within Canadian healthcare, and whether increasing religious

diversity has affected the commitment to, and delivery of, such care.

Congratulations to…

Paul Bowlby (PI)

(Saint Mary’s University)

Cathy Holtmann,

(University of New Brunswick)

Nancy Nason-Clark

(University of New Brunswick)

Rubina Ramji

(Cape Breton University)

Sam Reimer

(Crandall University)

On receiving funding for your

follow-up workshop

“Religious Diversity in

Atlantic Canada: Building

Collaborative Research

Capacity for the Present and

the Future”

7

Religion and Diversity Project Newsletter January 2013, Volume 3, Issue 1

Atheist Identities: Spaces and Social Contexts

Organized by Lori Beaman and student team member Steven Tomlins this two-day workshop attracted

scholars from the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada to share research on atheism. The

workshop opened with a public lecture by William Stahl, entitled “The Church on the Margins: Religion and

Atheism in a Secular Age,” in which he suggested that mainstream churches are institutional relics of the

Age of Mobilization and that fundamentalism is a backlash against the Age of Authenticity. He went on to

propose the New Atheists as both an expression of and a reaction against the Age of Authenticity. Stahl’s

remarks generated a lively discussion and set the stage for the workshop. Other participants included:

Amarnath Amarasingam, Peter Beyer, Spencer Bullivant, Richard Cimino, Christopher Cotter, Ryan

Cragun, Steve LeDrew, and Lorna Mumford. Session topics were interactive and dynamic including themes

such as The Socialization Processes of Religious ‘Nones’, Living Atheism, Atheism and Youth, and Atheist

Identities. The workshop concluded with a 2 hour plenary discussion of research results, theoretical

models and research methods, and suggestions for further research topics. The workshop demonstrated

that these topics are of considerable research interest and in need of future cooperation among scholars to refine both theory and method in the study of atheism and non-religion. Great job team!

Graduate Student Workshop Series 1

The first series of graduate student

workshops has come to an end, with a total

of three fruitful sessions. The workshops

were a terrific success and created an

engaged cohort of graduate students within

the project, who continued to meet over the

year to exchange ideas, network, and

develop research relationships. Nine of our

graduate student team members took part in

the workshops and each session was facilitated by a Religion

and Diversity Project team member. Graduate students took part in intensive research and program

discussions. The first session, held in November 2011 at the University of Ottawa was facilitated by James

Beckford (University of Warwick), and the group focused on research directions within the social sciences

that related to religion and diversity. Research dialogues continued during the second session which was

held at the Université de Montréal in May 2012, facilitated by Kim Knott (Lancaster University). The focus

of the session was to consider the issue of engaging research on religion and diversity beyond the academic

realm and students were challenged to present their research as though speaking to a non-academic

audience. The third session led by Nancy Nason-Clark (University of New Brunswick) and held in October

2012 at the Donald Gordon Conference Centre in Kingston, Ontario, wrapped up the series. With

discussions of professional development issues graduate students face such as applying for academic jobs

and publishing academic work, the students benefited greatly with new tools to face their future academic

careers. Thanks to our workshop facilitators and of course our engaged cohort of students, the first series

has been a tremendous success and has provided much helpful feedback for developing the second series

which will begin in the fall of 2013.

8

Religion and Diversity Project Newsletter January 2013, Volume 3, Issue 1

Public Lectures

We continue to have the privilege of welcoming outstanding guests to share their knowledge with us, other

faculty members, students and some community members as part of the Critical Thinkers in Religion, Law

and Social Theory series at the University of Ottawa.

Critical Thinkers in Religion, Law and Social Theory (2012 – 2013)

September 13, 2012. David Ownby: Religion, Politics and Scholarship in Contemporary China: Reflections on Researching the Falun Gong.

October 18, 2012. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd: Believing In Religious Freedom.

November 22, 2012. William A. Stahl: The Church on the Margins: Religion and Atheism in a Secular Age.

January 31, 2013. Anna Tsing: Critical Description after Progress: Recognizing Diversity in

Damaged Times.

March 7, 2013. Grace Davie: A European Perspective on Religion and Welfare: Connections,

Reflections and Extensions.

March 21, 2013. Tariq Modood: Is Multicultural Equality Compatible with an Established Religion or Religions?

Visit our website to learn more about upcoming lectures: www.religionanddiversity.ca.

Elizabeth Shakman Hurd (Northwestern University)

David Ownby

(Université de Montréal)

William A. Stahl

(University of Regina)

9

Religion and Diversity Project Newsletter January 2013, Volume 3, Issue 1

Graduate Research Grant Reports These grants provided financial support for graduate students supervised by a Religion and Diversity

Project team member to help them conduct original research (e.g. fieldwork or archival research)

related to their own graduate research and within the parameters of the Religion and Diversity Project.

Read how the grants have helped the students in their research.

Helge Årsheim

PhD student at the University of Oslo under the supervision of Winnifred Sullivan,

Helge Årsheim has been hard at work. Following the award of the Religion and

Diversity graduate grant earlier this year, Helge travelled to Geneva early in June

2012 in order to participate in the 60th session of the Committee on the Rights of

the Child. His dissertation, provisionally entitled Legal forms of the religious life,

revolves around the issue of how states and treaty bodies handle the category of

religion. Although the empirical material investigated in his dissertation is entirely

composed of reports prior to, and summary records and concluding observations

issued after, treaty body sessions, the real-life participation in at least one such

sessions has been of great value for his work. The session featured the review of six states: Vietnam,

Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Australia and Algeria and Helge focused specifically on Australia and Greece.

By attending these state report reviews, Helge was able to largely confirm earlier impressions of the

procedure he had established from extensive readings of summary records, state reports and

concluding observations. Best of luck with the rest of your research!

Catherine Holtmann

Catherine Holtmann, a PhD student supervised by Nancy Nason-Clark at

the University of New Brunswick, has undertaken her doctoral research

Immigrant Women, Social Networks and Religion as an exploration of the lives

of Muslim and Christian immigrant women in the Maritimes and the

strengths and vulnerabilities they bring to the settlement process. Using a

mixed methods approach, Cathy compared the differences that ethnicity,

religion and time make in terms of women’s utilization of formal and

informal social support networks after their arrival in the Maritimes. Her research is quite valuable in a time when the provinces of New Brunswick

and Prince Edward Island are experiencing an unprecedented wave of

migration. Her study is the only one of its kind that is focused on immigrant women in the region and

considers the role of religion in the settlement process. Her study also contributes to contemporary

debates as to whether or not women who experience multiple structures of oppression are at greater

risk for domestic violence in the Canadian context. Cathy has completed quantitative data analyses, 6

focus groups and 60 interviews for a total of 105 research participants from New Brunswick and P.E.I.

5 conference papers with the preliminary results of the qualitative analysis have been accepted for

presentation and an article based on the quantitative results has been submitted to a journal for

review. Congratulations Cathy!

10

Religion and Diversity Project Newsletter January 2013, Volume 3, Issue 1

Tanja Riikonen

Tanja Riikonen, who is completing her PhD at the Université de Montréal

under the supervision of Patrice Brodeur, was granted a Graduate Research

Grant in order to complete a field study in Finland. During her comparative

doctoral dissertation project, provisionally entitled Identity Discourses facing

Multiculturalism in Quebec and Finland – A case study of female Muslim immigrant

students in Helsinki and Montreal, Tanja observed a women’s evening at a

mosque in Helsinki and conducted 15 interviews with Muslim female students

in the cities of Helsinki and Turku. The essential research questions for her

field work focused on how Muslim immigrant female students define their

religiosity and their experiences about immigration and multiculturalism. As such,

her field trip to Finland had an essential role in the successful development of her doctoral dissertation

project. The grant allowed Tanja to take advantage of the Turku university library’s great book

collection in the area of religious studies. She also had an opportunity to create professional contacts

by meeting three interesting, friendly and well-known researchers in Finland. The field work in Finland was one of the most challenging but also one of the most motivating phases of Tanja’s doctoral

dissertation project, and having the grant helped move her project forward tremendously. Bravo Tanja!

Stay tuned for more GRG recipient research reports from Giomny Ruiz Fernandez and David Rangdrol!

Visiting Fellows The Religion and Diversity Project is happy to welcome…

Grace Davie will be a visiting fellow funded by the University of Ottawa’s Distinguished Visiting

Researcher Program from March 1-22, 2013. She will also be giving a public lecture on March 7

entitled “A European Perspective on Religion and Welfare: Connections, Reflections and

Extensions.” Furthermore, Grace will conduct a graduate student workshop and be involved in a

research meeting with Religion and Diversity Project team members. We look forward to your visit!

Post-Doctoral Fellows Here is a snap-shot of the Religion and Diversity Project’s post-doctoral fellows.

Amélie Barras, post-doctoral fellow at the Université de Montréal working with Solange Lefebvre

has been busy. She presented a paper entitled: “Regulating 'public religion'. The case of contemporary

Turkey”, at the New Forms of Public Religion conference in Cambridge, UK (5-7 September 2012).

She also presented a co-authored paper with Xavier Guillaume (University of Edinburgh) in London

entitled: “The tao of the non-player: understanding Islamic feminism in light of the work of Ashis

Nandy” in a workshop entitled “Catachreses: 'Gender', 'Religion' and 'Postcoloniality” at the School

of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) (17-19 December 2012).

Valérie Behiery, post-doctoral fellow at the Université de Montréal working with Valérie Amiraux,

recently published a paper on Arwa Abouon. “Imagining Islam in the Art of Arwa Abouon” has

appeared in the new issue of the Journal of Canadian Art History in a special issue edited by Dr. Loren

Lerner (Concordia University) on contemporary art and religion. She also has been asked to be on

two advisory boards: the one most relevant to the Religion and Diversity Project is for an upcoming

show on Muslim women organized by the International Museum of Women.

11

Religion and Diversity Project Newsletter January 2013, Volume 3, Issue 1

Religion, Sex and

Politics: Christian

Churches and Same-

Sex Marriage in

Canada Pamela Dickey Young

(Fernwood Publishing, 2012)

Religious Pluralism and

Islamic Law: Dhimmis and

Others in the Empire of

Law

Anver M. Emon

(Oxford University Press, 2012)

Global Pentecostal

Movements: Migration,

Mission, and Public

Religion

Michael Wilkinson

(Brill, 2012)

Le programme d'éthique et culture religieuse. De l'exigeante conciliation entre

le soi, l'autre et le nous Solange Lefebvre et Mireille

Estivalèzes

(Presses de l’Université Laval, 2012)

Congratulations to Gary

Bouma for being elected

President of the Australian

Association for the Study of

Religions.

Special Mentions

Reading Corner Written by our team members – add them to your reading list.

Personnel Updates

Recent additions to the Religion and Diversity Project include Marianne Abou-Hamad as

Project Assistant and Tess Campeau as Information Officer. Keep us posted on your

research activities and achievements by communicating with Tess

([email protected]) and Marianne ([email protected]).

Christopher Helland was invited to join the World Economic

Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Role of Faith; a special

twenty person committee meant to examine the role of faith in

the global environment. Christopher’s work on media, the

Internet and religion will be a new perspective that will be

integrated in the Council's work. The two year appointment

has already sent Christopher to Dubai, U.A.E. to attend The

Summit on the Global Agenda this past November and his

engagement has already boosted global interest in his research.

He plans to return to the United Arab Emirates next year to

complete his second turn with the committee.

Congratulations!

12

Religion and Diversity Project Newsletter January 2013, Volume 3, Issue 1

Contact Us

Share your news with us.

Religion and Diversity Project

University of Ottawa

Department of Classics and

Religious Studies

55 Laurier Avenue, Room 10101

Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5

Phone: 613.562.5800 ext. 2662

Email: [email protected]

Visit us online at:

www.religionanddiversity.ca

Research Nodes

Partners

Stakeholders